Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven Park

synonym

The temple of Heaven (Beijing Temple of heaven) generally refers to the temple of Heaven Park (Beijing Ming and Qing Dynasties Temple of Heaven Park)

Temple of heaven, world cultural heritage, national key cultural relics protection unit, national AAAAA scenic spot, national civilized scenic spot demonstration site.

Temple of heaven, in the south of Beijing, east of yongdingmennei street, Dongcheng District. It covers an area of about 2.73 million square meters. The temple of heaven was first built in the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1420). It was rebuilt during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty. It was a place for the emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties to offer sacrifices to the emperor and pray for abundant grain. The temple of heaven is the general name of the two altars of Yuanqiu and Qigu. It has two walls, forming the inner and outer altars. The wall is round in the South and North, symbolizing the round heaven and place. The main building is the inner altar. The round hill altar is in the South and the valley praying altar is in the north. The two altars are on the same north-south axis, separated by walls in the middle. The main buildings in the Circular Mound Altar are the Circular Mound Altar, the imperial vault and so on. The main buildings in the valley praying altar are the hall of praying for new year, the hall of emperor Qian, the gate of praying for new year and so on.

According to the news on July 12, 2018, the open area of Tiantan Park will be increased by another 2.24 hectares.

In September 2018, the daily maximum carrying capacity of the park will be reduced from 58000 to 50000.

World Cultural Heritage

Heritage Name: the temple of heaven, the Royal altar in Beijing

Temple of Heaven: anImperial SacrificialAltar in Beijing

Selected time: 1998

Selection criteria: Cultural Heritage (I) (II) (III)

Location: n39 50 44 e11626 41

Heritage number: 881

Heritage Description:

The temple of heaven is located in the southeast of the original outer city of Beijing, South by east of the Forbidden City, and east of Zhengyang gate. It is the place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties sacrificed to the emperor on the winter solstice and prayed for grain on the first lunar day. In 1998, it was listed in the world heritage list as a cultural heritage.

The temple of heaven was built in 1420, the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty. In 1530, the temple of heaven was dedicated to the worship of heaven. In 1534, it was renamed the temple of heaven. In the 19th year of Jiajing reign (1540), the original Da Si hall was changed into Da Xiang hall. After the Qing government entered the pass, everything was still in accordance with the old system of the Ming Dynasty. In 1747, the inner and outer walls of the temple of heaven were rebuilt. The walls were made of city bricks, and the inner wall was built into a corridor with overhanging eaves. After reconstruction, the inner and outer walls of the temple of heaven are more thick, extending more than ten li, becoming a very magnificent landscape.

The main buildings of the temple of heaven are the hall of praying for new year, the imperial vault and the circular mound. The wall of the temple of heaven is round in the South and North, symbolizing the round sky and the round place. Yuanqiu altar is in the South and Qigu altar is in the north. The two altars are on the same north-south axis, separated by walls. The Circular Mound Altar is built on the North-South vertical axis. The main buildings in it are the Circular Mound Altar and the imperial vault. The main buildings in the praying Valley altar are the hall of praying for new year, the hall of emperor Qian, and the gate of praying for new year. The hall of praying for new year was built in 1420, the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty. It was originally named "Da Si Dian". It is a rectangular hall, which means four seasons, December, twelve hours and the stars in the sky by the way of "imitating heaven and earth". It is the only remaining column of ancient Ming Tang style architecture and the main building of the temple of heaven. Yuanqiu altar, huangqiongyu and qigutan are the three main buildings on the central axis. Connecting the three main buildings is a long platform connecting the north and the south, which is called Danbi bridge, also known as Shinto or Haipeng Avenue. It is 360 meters long, 29.4 meters wide, and 1 meter high at the south end, rising gradually from south to north to 3 meters, symbolizing that this road connects with the heavenly palace, and the emperor ascends to heaven step by step from south to north. In the middle of Danbi bridge is Shinto, on the left is royal way, and on the right is royal way. The emperor takes royal way, the princes and ministers take royal way, and the gods take Shinto. There is an east-west tunnel under the bridge, which is the entrance to slaughter livestock before sacrifice. Zhaigong is located in the south of the west gate of the temple of heaven, facing the east from the West. It is the place where the emperor came to pray for valley and bath before fasting. Located in the northwest of xitianmenwai of Yuanqiu altar, the Shenyue department was established in 1420, the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty. It was the organ to manage the performance of ancient music when worshipping heaven. It was called Shenyue temple in Ming Dynasty, and the music and dance officials and dancers were held by Taoists. There are also nine dragon cypress, seven star stone, ganquanjing, wangdeng, burnt firewood stove, burying ridge, Liaolu and Futai in the temple of heaven. World Heritage Committee evaluation: the temple of heaven, built in the first half of the 15th century, is located in the Royal Garden, surrounded by ancient pines. It is a well preserved temple complex. No matter in the overall layout or single building, it reflects the relationship between heaven and earth (that is, between man and God), which occupies the core position in the ancient Chinese cosmology. At the same time, these buildings also reflect the unique role played by emperors in this relationship.

Historical evolution

According to historical records, there are official activities of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, which can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty, which was still in a slavery society in 2000 BC. The emperors in ancient China called themselves "the son of heaven", and they respected heaven and earth very much. In 1420, the temple of heaven was built in imitation of Nanjing's shape to offer sacrifices to the emperor, heaven and earth. Jiajing nine years (1530) Jiajing emperor listen to the minister said: "the ancient worship in the round hill, worship in the square hill.". Round mound, the southern suburbs of the mound on the ground, round and high mound, as the sky also. The square hills are the hills in the northern suburbs. The hills are square and downward, like the earth. " Therefore, it was decided to divide heaven and earth into two parts: one was to build a round mound to worship heaven in the south of the great sacrifice hall, and the other was to build a Fangze altar outside anding gate in the north city. In 1534, Yuanqiu was renamed Tiantan and Fangze was renamed Ditan. After the temple was abandoned, it was changed into a ceremonial altar. In 1538, the altar of praying for grain was abandoned. In the 19th year, another hall of enjoying grain was built on the altar, which was completed in the 24th year. In 1751, it was renamed the hall of praying for new year. Later, it was repaired and expanded many times.

In 1900, the Allied forces of the eight countries set up a headquarters in the temple of heaven Zhai palace and set up guns on Yuanqiu. Cultural relics and sacrificial vessels were swept away, and buildings and trees were destroyed. After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, the government invested a lot of money in the protection and maintenance of the temple of heaven. Many renovations and large-scale greening have been carried out to make the ancient temple of heaven more magnificent. The park covers an area of 200 hectares, with one gate on each side. There are more than 2500 ancient cypresses more than 200 years old in the garden. There are also a lot of flowers planted in Baihua garden.

In 1961, the State Council announced the temple of heaven as a "national key cultural relics protection unit.". In 1998, it was recognized as "world cultural heritage" by UNESCO. On May 8, 2007, the temple of Heaven Park was officially approved as a national 5A scenic spot by the National Tourism Administration.

On July 12, 2018, Li Gao, the director of Tiantan Park, introduced that Tiantan Park will increase the green area by nearly 20000 square meters and expand the open area for tourists by 2.24 hectares.

Architectural features

The temple of Heaven Park is a place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties worship heaven and pray for a bumper harvest of grain every year. The temple of heaven is famous for its rigorous architectural layout, peculiar architectural structure and magnificent architectural decoration. It covers an area of about 2.7 million square meters and is divided into inner altar and outer altar. The main buildings are the inner altar, the round dome altar and the imperial vault in the south, the prayer hall and the Huangqian hall in the north. The two groups of buildings are connected by a corridor connecting the north and the South - Danbi bridge. The outer altar is full of ancient cypresses, which surround the inner altar, making the main buildings more solemn and grand. There are also echo wall, three tone stone, dialogue stone, etc. built by skillful use of acoustic principle in the altar, which fully shows the developed level of ancient Chinese architectural technology. The temple of Heaven Park is the largest preserved altar complex in China.

The temple of heaven has two walls, forming the inner and outer altars, which are round in the north and round in the south. At the beginning, in order to show the image of heaven and earth on the wall, to symbolize the saying that "the sky is round and the place is round". There are no doors on the southeast and north sides of the outer altar wall, but there are two doors on the inner street of Yongdingmen in the West. The north gate is an old one in Ming Dynasty, which is called "qigutan gate"; the south gate was added in 1752, which is called "Yuanqiu altar gate". The two doors are of three arched style, with green glazed tiles and Hill Style roofs. Both the north gate and the east gate of Waitan were built after 1975. There is also an east-west partition wall in the middle of the inner altar, which can be regarded as the north wall of the round hill altar. This section of partition wall protrudes to the north in an arc at the two axes, bypasses the outer wall of the imperial vault and connects with the wall of the East and West Inner altar, dividing the two altars of Qigu and Huanqiu into two areas.

The circular mound of neitan is located in the south, and the Qigu is located in the north. They are all on the North-South central axis. The middle part is connected by the Shinto (Danbi bridge) which is 360 meters long and 30 meters wide. The main buildings in the round Mound Altar are the round mound platform (sacrificial platform), the imperial vault (Temple of worship, God storehouse and God kitchen, and slaughter Pavilion), etc.; the main buildings in the grain praying altar are the gate of praying for new year, the Great Hall of worship (Hall of praying for new year), the East and west side hall, the Huangqian hall, the long corridor (with seven star stone), the God storehouse and God kitchen, and the slaughter Pavilion, etc.

The temple of heaven is the general name of Qigu and Huanqiu. It is surrounded by two walls, which divide the altar area into two parts, the inner and the outer. The sacrificial architecture in the altar is concentrated in the inner altar, which is surrounded by doors. The axis connecting the two altars is a 360m long, 28m wide and 2.5m high brick platform, which is called "Shinto" or "Haipeng Avenue", or "Danbi bridge". It means a long way to heaven. Located at the south end of the central axis, the Circular Mound Altar complex is an altar for emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties to worship the God. To the north of the altar is the imperial vault. Qigutan is located at the north end of the central axis, the main hall

Chinese PinYin : Tian Tan